


In the Closet

by crimsonobsession



Category: X-Men Evolution
Genre: Claustrophobia, Drunken Flirting, Enemies With Benefits, M/M, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Seven Minutes In Heaven Game, Truth or Dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26626786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimsonobsession/pseuds/crimsonobsession
Summary: "I was wondering how long it'd take to turn this into Seven Minutes in Heaven."Didn't your parents ever tell you not to drink and play potentially humiliating party games?
Relationships: Toad/Kurt Wagner
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36





	In the Closet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [idgiebay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/idgiebay/gifts).



> The other day I did the unthinkable and re-read some of my ancient X-Men: Evolution fics, circa 2003. Bizarrely, I didn't hate them as much as I expected to! I decided to clean up some of the ones with the least cringey content and post them over here. If you like what you see, there's more to come in the next few days/weeks, and other stuff that will remain on my old Fanfiction.net account under the same username.

"Come on, come on, everybody sit your asses down and let's get started! Lance, baby, bring that bottle over here, there's a good boy." Tabby snatched the empty beer bottle from his tightening grip, ignoring the boy's glare and gritted teeth and instead turning her attention to her 'audience'. 

Her 'audience' consisted of most of the party's remaining guests...the ones that weren't passed out on various pieces of furniture or major appliances, that is. The punch the Brotherhood boys had spiked the minute they crashed the party had done its work admirably. Only about fifteen people were left standing. Or sitting. Or making out in one of the two-story's upper bedrooms. 

Most of the X-Men knew better than to touch any foodstuffs the Brotherhood had been close to; okay, Evan was passed out on a sofa somewhere, and Tabby had to interrupt Kurt's throaty rendition of 'Material Girl' to get him to join the group, but at least Rogue and Kitty were sober. And the Brotherhood boys had wisely not drunk much. Or rather, Lance and Blob hadn't drunk much. Quicksilver's metabolism meant the drink did little more than make him more hyper and thereby less coherent, and Toad...well everyone was quickly discovering that Toad was a very giggly drunk.

"Hang on a sec dawg, I wanna hear Elf-boy do 'Like a Virgin'." 

A decidedly devilish grin crossed Tabby's lips as she steadied Toad's hopping with a hand on his shoulder. "Later, frog-man, later. Right now it's time for a few rounds of the penultimate party game..." Her predatory gaze swept the small circle, bringing a shiver to the spines of those sober enough to register its meaning. "Everybody ready for a little Truth or Dare?"

The responses were varied, everything from an uninterested wave of the hand by Rogue to a resounding, slurred 'Hell yeah!' from Kurt.

"At least Blue's in the spirit of things," Tabby smirked, and handed Kurt the bottle. The boy stared at it blankly for a moment with an almost wistful expression on his face, as if trying to figure out why it was empty. "You're up first, Fuzzy, let's go!" 

A confused blink. "Go where?" 

Lance snorted, gaining himself an irritated glare from Kitty, but Tabby ignored them both. "Oh come on, Blue, you can't tell me you've never played Truth or Dare!" At his confused stare she sighed, rolling her eyes. "Okay, I can see I'm gonna have to enlighten you. Rules're simple. Spin the bottle. Whoever it points to, you ask them Truth or Dare, right?"

"Ja..."

"If they say Truth, you ask them a question and they've gotta answer, truthfully of course. Dare, and you dare them to do something fun and morbidly embarrassing, like run around the house in their underwear or something. Got it?"

His confusion turned to an eager grin. "Ja! Sounds like fun." Immediately the bottle was spinning on the carpet before him, slowly coming to rest...

"Pietro! Truth or Dare?"

\-----

The game progressed quickly from there. Kurt was an especially enthusiastic player; by the tenth round Rogue had endured a Kitty makeover, with the help of their giggling hostess, Lance had given a stirring performance of 'I'm a Little Teapot', complete with 'teapot' gestures and hatred-filled glares, and, for the _coup de grace_ , Pietro had been forced to kiss a still-sleeping Evan. So it was that when, on Pietro's turn, the bottle finally landed on Kurt...

"Truth or Dare, Fuzzface!"

'Saytruthsaytruthsaytruth...' Kurt's mind screamed. 

"Dare," his mouth said. 

'Fuck.' 

"I was hoping you'd say that." Kurt barely had time to register Pietro's almost homicidal grin before he found himself lifted, sped across the room, and suddenly surrounded by fabric, darkness, and the cloying scent of mothballs. His shoulders hit the wall behind him, hard, and he slid to the floor, rubbing the back of his neck with a grimace. 

"Hey!" he managed to get out before the door was again opened, illuminating the small closet briefly. Something small and squealing flew in beside him, and Pietro's smirking face appeared in the doorway for a split second. 

"Wouldn't want you to get lonely in there. I'd say you need at least, oh, thirty minutes to cool off. Or heat things up, depending on how drunk he is." Then he was gone, taking the light with him. Tabby's trademark giggling filtered through the door. 

"You heard the man, Blue. Thirty minutes in the closet. I was wondering how long it'd take to turn this into Seven Minutes in Heaven." A pause, punctuated by the muffled laughter of several more voices, then, "Oh, one more thing! If you bamf your way out of there, I'll tell the Prof. about your little wheelchair races in the halls of the mansion!"

The formerly squealing bundle beside him stirred, now groaning loudly. 

"Ooh, they don't waste any time! Come on, guys, lets give the lovebirds some privacy. Rogue, you're up!" 

Her voice trailed off slowly, leaving Kurt staring into nothingness, his mouth hanging open. The bundle at his side stirred, a quiet moan trying to break through the lingering haze clouding his brain. 

"Ooow, man...wha' happened, yo?" 

Toad. They'd locked him in a closet with TOAD. Someone was definitely going to pay...just as soon as he was sober. Which hopefully wasn't too far away; being suddenly shoved into a closet with an enemy went a long way towards sobering a person up. He rubbed fervently at the bridge of his nose. 

"We're in the closet, _yo_ ," he growled, shifting to a more vertical position. "They locked us in the closet."

"Closet?" Something warm brushed against Kurt's hand, and he quickly scooted against the far wall. "Fuzzy? What're you doin' in the closet, dawg?"

"Currently? Holding my breath, and planning my revenge. What about you? Why you?" Kurt wondered aloud. His eyes were slowly adjusting; with his enhanced night-vision the tiny crack of light creeping in under the door was more than enough to cast everything with a gentle glow, delineating shadowed boxes covering the floor, the folds in hanging clothing, and a few misshapen objects that could've been anything from a vacuum to giant pool toys. One shadow detached itself from the rest, leaning back against the opposite wall and mumbling.

"What the hell, man? Where are we?" 

Kurt sighed irritably at the slurred words. Apparently the situation hadn't had the same sobering effect on Toad. "Hello! You, me, psychotic speedster, closet. Any questions?"

His sight was getting better, though he wasn't sure if that was a blessing or curse. Aside from the grayed, colorless tones, he could make out more of Toad's features now, a hint of his tousled hair and the dim gleam of his confused eyes, roaming around, unseeing. "Hello. Uh, speedy...closet...Wait, closet?! Like small, cramped, really tight space with no air-type closet?!" 

Kurt's eyebrow raised. "No, like a perfectly normal, safe closet. Though if I'm lucky maybe a closet-monster will show up and put me out of my misery. Or put you out of my misery. Whichever works." 

Toad squirmed, pulling at his collar. His breathing rang heavy in the enclosed space, causing Kurt's eyebrow to raise another notch. "Man, I gotta...uh... Does it feel hot in here to you? I think... I think I need some air. Like, now."

"Toad, chill man, it's just a clos-"

"Naw, dawg, you don't get it. I've gotta...I gotta..." The boy stumbled to his feet, slamming his head on a shelf and cursing loudly, then started to bang on the closet door. "Hey guys, come on! This isn't funny!"

The only answer was another wave of muffled giggling outside, quickly followed by the pounding beats of the stereo being turned up. Kurt regarded Toad levelly, more than a hint of irritation in his eyes, though it again went unnoticed. "Will you just sit down? They're not going to let us out anytime soon. This's way too amusing for that."

Toad glanced at him finally, eyes wide and shining oddly. "Fuzzy? Hey...hey yeah, you can get us outta here, right? Just a quick poof and we're back in the living room, yo. Do it fast and maybe we'll surprise 'em enough to get a shot at 'tro before he can run!"

"Ja, maybe, before he tosses our asses back in here for another hour or two." Crossing his arms and rolling his eyes, Kurt slumped back against the wall, pulling his knees up and letting his tail twitch at his side. "Not to mention Tabby will rat on me. Forget it, man, I'm staying right here until they get bored and let me out."

Toad shuffled his foot for a moment; his eyes darted around the tiny space, and he worried his lower lip with his teeth. "Can't ya' just-"

"No."

"If you'd just-"

"NO."

Toad's back straightened, briefly, before he lowered himself to the floor. He crawled back to his former position, hunching his shoulders and sniffling as if injured. For a moment there was relative silence, broken only by the thumping bass outside, Kurt's soft breathing, and Todd's shallower breaths...breaths which were becoming louder. 

"Toad?"

They were now heavy, panting. The gleam of the boy's eyes had disappeared, and it took Kurt a moment to realize they were closed. "Toad? Man, are you all right? Not like I care or anything, but..." 

Toad gave a sudden, wheezing cough, and Kurt's natural compassion finally got the better of him. Getting to his knees, he crawled across the closet floor, dodging boxes until he reached Toad's huddled form. He laid an unsure hand on the boy's shoulder; he was shuddering softly, and jumped at the contact. "Hey man, what's wrong?" 

"I just...I d-don't do so good in close places, ya' know?"

His voice was a pitiful, pleading shadow of its usual self, and Kurt squirmed. "Would it help if I, uh..turned on the light?" 

He rose long enough to fumble across the wall, fingers searching the cold plaster until they found a switch. He flipped it...and almost instantly regretted it. One look at the boy's sallow face and the hair matted to his sweat-slicked forehead, and he wanted to turn the lights off. It was a kind of guilty relief when Toad's eyes widened fearfully before he buried his face in his arms. "H-hell naw, man. Turn the damn thing off...please..."

It was that final, desperate word that did it. Flicking the switch again, Kurt paused only a moment before lowering himself to the boy's side. Clearing a space, he squeezed in between Toad and the back wall; then, not really knowing why, he curled an arm around the boy's shoulders, hesitantly.

Instantly the small shoulders stopped shaking, stiffened. A soft gasp carried in the sudden, unnatural silence. "Man...what're you..."

Blood rushed to Kurt's cheeks, making him feel far too warm. He started to take his hand away, trying to ignore the tightening in his chest. "Sorry, I... You want me to stop?"

"NO!" The strength of the reply shocked Kurt, almost made him pull fully away. "S-sorry. No, man, it's...it's okay."

Kurt's look was dubious, but he rested his arm back on those slim shoulders and leaned into the boy experimentally. Slowly Toad's breathing evened out, his eyes sliding shut again. "Better?" Kurt finally ventured, but he got no response. They sat in uncomfortable silence for a while; but if there was one thing Kurt couldn't stand, it was silences, especially the uncomfortable ones. 

"Toad?"

"Stop callin' me that, dawg." 

Kurt blinked, the demand taking him by surprise almost as much as the wounded anger in the boy's tone. "Everybody else does," he replied, but only managed to sound slightly petulant. The boy stirred beside him, pulling away a bit.

"Yeah, well." He looked away, scratched idly at his ear. "Everybody else turns all 'freaked villagers with pitchforks' when they see you _au naturale_." With his heavy Manhattan drawl the words came off as 'aw naturell'. He glanced at Kurt out of the corner of his eye, regarding him for a moment, then turned his gaze back to the floor, hunching his shoulders. "'S that make it right, yo? You think I gave myself that name? Fuck no. People been callin' me that since I was a kid. Never Todd, always 'Toad', 'Slimeball', 'Wartboy'. Little Toady Tolensky, always up to no good but never fights back, easy target. Gets to the point they don't even have ta' say it anymore, just look at me that way..."

His gaze had become a glare, intense and focused inward. Kurt couldn't stop staring at his eyes; his pupils gleamed, crimson-tinted, in an otherwise colorless world. 

The corner of Kurt's lips suddenly twitched. His voice was soft, gently teasing when he broke the silence. "I always thought you were more like a frog, anyway."

The glare Tolensky shot him seemed dulled, only halfhearted. "That supposed to be a compliment, dawg?"

"Yeah. Frogs are cute." He fixed Todd with a warm smile, receiving a subtle quirk of the boy's pale lips in return. Then the actual meaning behind his own words struck Kurt, and he flushed, looking away with a nervous cough, his irritably switching tail belying his uncertainty as surely as the blush his fur and inducer hid. 

As he was pointedly avoiding the other boy's gaze, Kurt missed the grin that crossed Todd's lips, warm and laced with a question. Silence fell over them again, for a while, this one more comfortable, if still awkward. They simply sat, leaning against one another, lost in themselves. 

Well, Kurt assumed Todd was lost in himself, as Kurt was trying to be. As it was, all Kurt could think about was the pleasant warmth pressing into his side. Todd's shoulders seemed delicate under his arm's weight, fragile but somehow wiry, deceptively strong. He wondered why he hadn't taken his hand off yet, thought idly that he probably should. Any minute now.

Something brushed lightly against his knee. Kurt looked down, blinking in confusion at the long fingers that seemed to disappear into his 'skin'; he wasn't sure which was more disturbing, the illusion, or the fact of those fingers laying, hot and light, against his other arm. 

"What are you..." 

"You're soft, man. I wondered. Ya know, whether you was like a cat or like...I don't know, a horse or somethin'. Soft or coarse." Todd's voice was quiet, curious and unassuming. Every instinct Kurt had screamed for him to pull away from the boy's gentle touch, then that touch became a caress and those instincts were brutally silenced by some far more demanding. 

Kurt's eyes slid shut; there was a movement at his wrist, a sudden hum sounded, the telltale static sensation of his inducer, and he opened his eyes to see almost white skin against deep indigo shadows. Todd's fingers were traveling along his arm now, the bit of webbing in between buried in his fur.

"Hey, yo, you got glow-in-the-dark eyes." Kurt blinked lazily, trying to make sense out of the non sequitor through the haze slowly choking his brain. 

" _Vas_?"

"Your eyes. They're glowin', all gold and amber and stuff. They're pretty..." he hesitated, clearing his throat and staring down at his fingers, running them idly through Kurt's dark fur. "Uh...pretty cool. Yeah, cool."

A blush rose to Kurt's cheeks, the heat seeming to spread through his chest and make his breath shallow. "Uh...thanks. Yours uh...yours glow too, actually." And they were glowing, bright spots of light reflecting in the darkness, and Kurt realized he'd never taken the time to look at them, _really_ look. In the washed-out tones of the dim light seeping into the closet, Todd's eyes were a vibrant, almost unnatural amber, darker than their usual shade, flecked with gold and framed by an almost colorless face. The crimson tint was still there, hidden in his pupils, like the reflective shade of a Siamese cat's, giving his eyes an almost haunting depth. 

"What're you lookin' at?"

"Eh?" Suddenly coming back to himself, Kurt realized he'd been staring, and blushed again, unseen. "Uh, sorry." 

Todd didn't answer, merely gave him a strange look and turned away. His hand continued its exploration of Kurt's fur. Kurt asked himself why he hadn't pulled away yet, and occupied himself with pretending he didn't know the answer. It worked...until the teasing touch magically found its way to his side. His eyes darted to his wrist, where Todd's hand still played with the fur around his inducer, then to his side; Todd's other arm had disappeared beneath Kurt's shirt, and the boy had to bite back a sudden moan as those fingers pressed his fur the wrong way.

" _Vas_...what are you..." The fingers traveled forward, sneaking around to tease dangerously close to one of Kurt's nipples. The moan broke free this time, filling the small space. " _Mein Gott_! Stop, what're you...you doing..." 

Todd's voice was calm, tainted with amusement and a hint of a smirk that didn't quite make it to his lips. "Just curious, dawg. Ya' sure you want me to stop?" 

"No... I mean, YES, of course, are you crazy?! We can't just...just..." A cloud was quickly filling Kurt's brain, thick and cloying and hot, but he finally managed to pull away, retreating to the far corner of the closet. Which would've worked out fine, if Todd hadn't followed, crawling along the floor with something unidentifiable glinting in his glowing eyes. Kurt swallowed, hard, against the lump rising in his throat. "You're drunk!"

"And horny, yo."

"TODD!" Kurt wondered desperately if force of will was strong enough to let him melt into the wall. At least, he did before he realized his own power would be far more effective. He was internally debating whether a couple weeks worth of Danger Room sessions (looking back, wheelchair racing in the halls really wasn't his best idea, and letting Tabby in on the fun had been downright stupid) was a worse reality than this one when a burning hand ran over his equally burning belly. 

A soft gasp issued from Kurt's suddenly dry lips; he licked them, and stared down. Todd's eyes were glowing, dulled by an obvious want that made Kurt's stomach clench, but there was something surprisingly gentle in them, tentative as the slow strokes of his long fingers across Kurt's fur. "Tell me you don't want it and it's done."

"Uhn..." Todd's fingers brushed across Kurt's nipple, and he squirmed, a moan the only thing able to fight its way past his fogged brain. Todd smirked, a hint of his usual misplaced bravado overtaking his apparent hesitance.

"Yeah, thought so."

"This isn't right," Kurt murmured. His hands wrapped themselves around Todd's wandering one, halting his movements as Kurt regarded him with a half-lidded, drunken gaze that had nothing to do with the night's alcohol. "We shouldn't..."

"Why? What's so wrong, huh? 's it because it's me? Not good enough, dawg? Should'a known...kinda figured. Stupid'a me ta even think..." He started to pull away, brows furrowing and gaze dropping to the side, but Kurt wouldn't let go of his hand. 

"Nein, not you..." Kurt was almost scared to find he meant it. From the wide-eyed look Todd gave him, he wasn't the only one. "But...we're enemies..."

Todd's hands tightened, squeezing Kurt's thumbs, while some of his smirk returned. "Enemies with benefits."

Heat rose in Kurt's cheeks, and he turned away from the blatant need on Todd's face - "And you're drunk..." - and suddenly there was a gentle touch on his chin, fingers curling against his fur and twisting his head until he met Todd's solemn, determined amber eyes.

"I ain't doin' nothin' I'll regret later, man. How 'bout you?"

With that, Kurt's stubborn resolve gave out, delicate cracks feathering it until it shattered like a piece of china in the midst of one of Alvers' temper tantrums. Kurt swallowed again. His tongue felt thick and sluggish and he couldn't respond. But something in his face must have answered for him, for with a reassuring smile (a real, true, unassuming smile, and Kurt wondered how he never noticed, through the false bravado, how gentle Todd could be) Todd lowered his head, sucking gently at Kurt's belly while his hands pressed upwards, raising Kurt's shirt and tickling his ribs and as the sounds of the party picked up again outside the door Kurt tried very hard not to make too much noise...

______

"Aaaw, cuteness!"

The far-too-chipper voice dragged Kurt's conscious (kicking and screaming in an odd mix of German, English, and Gibberish) into, well...consciousness. Painful consciousness. His head was killing him; light stabbed his eyes when he opened them, and he rubbed them roughly with thumb and finger, cursing under his breath.

"C'mon, Blue, up and at 'em!" Slim fingers lighted on his shoulder, shaking him firmly and forcing him to open his eyes. 

"Tabby?" he moaned.

"The one and only. That drink must've hit you hard last night if you've forgotten me so soon. ...Or maybe it wasn't the drink at all." She wagged her eyebrows at him and gave him a suggestive wink, and he finally became aware of the heavy warmth pressed against his other side, the warmth his other arm was currently wrapped around. Squinting against the glaring light, he glanced down at the thin form huddled against him. A smile broke across his face...until Tabby's presence finally sank in, and his head whirled around, as he regarded her with wide eyes. 

"Tabby! Uh, listen, I can explain! Wait, no I can't. _Verflucht_. Really, it's not what you..." 'But then it IS, isn't it?' his mind mocked him, and all he could do was stare at the girl, mouth hanging open and eyes pleading, until his fight-or-flight instinct kicked in and he struggled to sit up, prepared to mollify...or port himself and Todd out of the line of fire. Whichever came first. 

"Lay down, lay down!" She placed her small hands on his chest, pushing him back down with surprising strength and not a hint of gentleness. "Nobody's gonna separate you two, just relax." Over her shoulder he caught a glimpse of the living room. The sun was blaring painfully through the thin curtains of the big bay window in the front of the house. Sleeping bodies were everywhere, draped over couches, chairs, the floor. Kitty lay on one couch, her head resting in Rogue's lap, while Pietro was laying on the floor with his hand dangerously close to Evan's ass. Freddy seemed to be the only other person awake. He glanced at Kurt for a moment, then went back to 'cleaning up' the refreshments of the night before. 

Sudden realization dawned. 

"You set me up!" he cried. At his side Todd stirred, wrapping thin arms around Kurt's chest and mumbling something in his sleep. Kurt lowered his voice, hissed at Tabby, "I can't believe you, you set me up!"

The girl gave him an insufferably smug grin, crossing her arms and looking down on him as if disappointed it had taken him this long. "Duh, Blue! Of course I did! What d'you think this whole thing was about? The boys showing up, the game, even the little 'exploding cup o' punch' trick that sent Ms. Thang home with Scooter. Figured you would've figured that out by now! I should be insulted."

"Even Jean and Scott? Home... _Mein Gott_ , the mansion, we should've been home hours ago! The Prof's gonna kill us! Or worse, he'll let Logan do it!" 

Tabby laid a reassuring hand on his chest again, calming him as only she ever could. "But it was sure worth it, right?" 

Her tone - not to mention the appraising look she gave the boy at his side - made him blush, hidden under his fur. He averted his eyes, letting them rest instead on Todd's pale face. "But why did you..." 

"Oh come ON, Blue! I can't believe you didn't see it! The boy's been mooning over you for weeks now! How do you think I got Pie-Pie to play along? He was getting sick of the constant staring and sighing and shit, said if something didn't happen soon he wouldn't be held accountable when Todd found himself dumped in the middle of Area 51."

Kurt raised an eyebrow at her. He didn't notice when his fingers starting brushing idle circles against Todd's shoulder. "What? What're you-?"

"I swear! Are all boys this damn dense? No wonder I play for the other team. Listen Blue, Toddles was all but performing a nice strip-tease to get your attention. It was plain as day, and becoming pretty sickening to boot. Something just had to be done."

Blush deepening, Kurt craned his neck to see past her, into the living room again. "Was, eh... Was anybody else..."

"Everybody except Lance." Rogue suddenly spoke up from the couch, making Kurt jump. She glanced at him for a moment before turning her attention back to Kitty's face with a soft smile. "Kitty was all over the chance to play matchmaker..."

"And you know your big sis just wants what's best for ya'," Tabby finished, ruffling Kurt's already tousled hair playfully. "Now get some rest. I doubt you boys got much of it last night." Another wink, another blush. "Oh, and you might wanna move to a more comfortable location. If I'm not mistaken, and I never am about these things, the third bedroom from the left is currently unoccupied and lonely. Don't worry about intruding parental units or anything, they're away for the weekend. You boys've got plenty of time." 

Rogue gave a strange little half-snort of a laugh from the couch, but smiled. Kurt glanced between the two conspirators for a moment, then looked back at Todd, brushing stray strands of dusty-brown hair from his face and squeezing his shoulder. "Thank you," he murmured, then he and Todd were gone in a cloud of sulfur and smoke.

Tabby got to her feet, crossing to the couch and plopping down beside Rogue. The girl seemed to ignore her at first, content to weave her fingers idly through Kitty's hair, watching the play of sunlight as the strands slipped through her hands. Rogue finally spoke, a smug smile crossing her lips. "One down..." 

Pietro stirred noisily, and Tabby glanced at him, smirking at his proximity to his rival. "And at least one to go."


End file.
